On the Strengthening of the Chthonic Principle in the Revived Aphrodite Cult in the Northern Black Sea Region in the First Centuries a.d.

Abstract

The research object is the domain of Hellenic religious worldview in the Northern Black Sea region during the Antiquity era. The research focuses on the revival of the Aphrodite cult in the Bosporus and Chersonese in the first centuries A.D. and the strengthening of the chthonic element in these beliefs. The authors consider in detail such aspects of the topic as the mythological origin, the presence of various epicleses of the Greco-barbarian Aphrodite, her connection with other female deities, as well as the features of the chthonic functions originally inherent in this goddess of love and family life. The article pays particular attention to Aphrodite's involvement in funerary rites and the deity's patronage of dead souls. The main research conclusions stem from the identified multifactorial reasons for the popularity of the Aphrodite cult in the Northern Black Sea region in the Roman period. The most important of these are the distribution of the deity's cult among the Romans and the possibility of Aphrodite's divine protection covering a wide enough range of the local population, including sailors, as well as the peculiarities of the reaction of local Hellenes to the Roman cultural expansion. The authors' special contribution to the study of the subject is to link the radical changes in the veneration of Aphrodite in the Northern Black Sea region with the democratization of the apotheosis of the dead in the first centuries A.D. The novelty of the research lies in conducting the first comprehensive study in historiography on this topic, which has revealed one of the main reasons for the return of popularity, as well as the archaization of the Aphrodite cult in the Northern Black Sea region during the Roman period. According to the authors, it was an increased need for the deification of deceased relatives, in order to ensure the peace of their souls and achieve immortality. It was Aphrodite, the oldest and supreme Hellenic deity as Mistress of the afterworld, who could most effectively breathe divine powers into the deceased as well as ensure that he/she would be born in a new capacity.